Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Why is it that when people travel they tend to ignore others? I went home for Thanksgiving, and noticed people in the airports have this two foot bubble around them, and nothing exists outside of it. Clots of people stand in the center of narrow hallways, couples step of escalators and stop inches from the edge, mothers park strollers in front of doorways, and people abruptly stop -- right in front of you.

I make a conscious effort to avoid such behaviors, but I know I'm too a bubble-person at times. I urge everyone to be aware of others and at least realize that other people may be sharing the same space as you! Although, this has kind of a poetic mirror to the "me! me!" attitude we have in this country...

On a lighter note, I learned that stuffing, salad, turkey, and cranberry relish makes a great burrito, and that sometimes you get lucky: my long-term parking receipt from the airport says 3:23:59. One minute more, and I would have been charged for the fifth day!

Monday, November 08, 2004

It's funny -- we humans aren't the only ones who do social leeching. Take a look at these rats... talk about pulling the whole team's weight (or fighting against the others).

I went to the pet store over the weekend, and saw a frantic chinchilla, some really lazy ferrets, and rats that clustered inside the running wheel. Little animals can be funny. I think I should get a cat. Maybe I'll just play with my parents' if they're milling around the house over thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

If you're hoping for me to rant about the election outcomes, you'll be sorely disappointed. I'll leave it up to the one-sided liberals to complain about Kerry's loss. Since the vote was so close (in popular and electoral counts) it really doesn't matter who wins. Sure, you could say we have a divided America, but I think it really means that there isn't a substantive difference between candidates. They're both career politicians. 'Nuff said.

On the other side, I worry about religious legislation. Recently states such as Missouri and Kentucky passed laws that ban same-sex marriage. On what legal grounds? Personally, I'm not too empathetic to people who don't care for the opposite sex, but who are we to say they can't have what they want? I say leave 'em alone. Sure the majority should have the rule, but it doesn't mean the minority should be oppressed or filtered out. Our country was founded by outcasts who were undesirables back home and needed a place to go where people would let them be. If a gay couple were to marry in our country, what harm would it do me? None! Leave them alone. Of all people, I would like a ban on pairs of psychopathic serial-killers who want to get married with intent to raise a herd of baby psychopaths. This is currently legal! There's no law against convicted felons getting married. We might as well pass a law about that too. While we're at it, since the "terrorists" of the 9/11 incident were Muslim, why don't we just ban Islam in the US too? Because it would be unconstitutional! So who says that gay marriage is unconstitutional!? By inflicting our religious beliefs on our set of laws in this country, we are becoming what we detested at the beginning: a country that shuns the minority with different values.

Granted, religion isn't always an excuse to oppress minority. Sometimes it can help. But in the case of Christian motivations behind civil rights, the religious influence was motivation for equality, not to pass laws against non-Christians.

The thing I find funny is that the so-called "Conservatives" are all about banning same-sex unions. What ever happened to non-interfering small government? Don't destroy our beautiful, free country. Supposedly we fought in Iraq to free the country---what would it say to the international community if we invade others to set them free but act like control freaks with our own citizens? Hands off, lawmakers. Hands off.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Yesterday RAM and I carved some pumpkins (LinkLink). It was kinda fun... we were looking on the internet for some clever ideas of what to carve, and the best thing we came across (but didn't do) was the Puking pumpkin. Hilarious. Anyhow, it's been a pretty uneventful Halloween so far... maybe we'll get some trick-or-treaters later.

UPDATE (11/1):We lit them up last night and, boy, did they look neat. :) (Link)